If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Enjoy an ad free experience by logging in. Not a member yet? Register.

Need help from innovative thinkers on an idea.

First I must admit that this is one of my "million dollar ideas" something that I trully believed would make a lot of money. Please continue reading.

This idea is a "philantrophic" idea in the sense that many would benefit and it isn't just some sleezy scheme to get money.

I apologize if this is the wrong place to post however I don't really know where else to go.

First a brief biography: I am a technology dude, I love machines, devices, electricity...
I have spent most of my life studying aviation and mechanics so my knowledge does not apply to software / coding. Since this idea of mine is rather ambitious, I need help from several people who are good at what they are doing and love what they do.

THE IDEA

From initial searches, this idea does not yet exist. I am disclosing it because I want it to exist and it is ok if it becomes open source and i don't generate any money from it but I would personally like the program to exist because I wish I had it when I was setting up a website.

What I wanted to do was basically create an image to html transltator by using a scanner.

How would this work?

Well the program/software ( I don't know what to call it ) would operate in this procedure:

* First the user scans the drawing of their website

* Next, the data from the scanner is analyzed and understood, then a copy or memory is made of the image.

* The program will begin to "understand" what it is seeing, and start to group things together and fix things. For example a squigly drawn window would be fixed by the program and made into straight lines.

* The program has a built in "photoshop like editor" to customize the website by changing colors, giving function to buttons, the size of the website etc...

* The website is then scaled and emulated on various devices, PC's or mobile phones

It seems simple in theory but I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it would be to make this, even as a single person who is good at coding as there are several things to be "identified and annotated". That is, there are lots of things that a single person may specialize in doing. Further there is the problem of user-ability, can multiple operating sytems use the program and should it be web based so that multiple devices may use the program.

The other part that is hard (besides the entire project itself) is the idea that the "program" can interpret lines and text and boxes etc...

Still I firmly believe that this can exist and would be very helpful for multiple people. In fact I thought of it as an after thought when I tried to have someone create a website for me which I drew on Microsoft Paint. The human element would be "eliminate" when using this program and the failure to start ideas from naievity would be solved since people would not need to know html to use build their own custom websites which are not replicated templates or simple designs.

When I look at a PayPal donate button, I look at the HTML code and I see that most of it is "things" to do with addresses, location, function and not so much the item itself, it seems that the "button" is merely an image referenced in the code.

So, when I apply that thought to this idea, "Scan-a-web", I think that it is not what I am after although the scanning portion could use the "referecing or indexing" as a base block or starting point before aesthetics are added.

If I scan a website drawing, the program should be able to identify a scroll bar, which you would then while in the program, select on this scroll bar drawing and it should "light up or highlight" to suggest that you can intereract with this object and thereby assign it a task or change the color etc...

I think that most anyone can "draw" their idea and if they see something in their head, they want to make it as close as possible to what they envision. So, with the program, it is nice to think that a persons' dreams or desires are not destroyed by their lack of knowledge.

I'm not trying to put people out of jobs but it would be great if one could simply scan their website design idea and work from there.

If this idea is completely pointless because website builders such as Weebly may already make my idea obsolete if not useless then I understand.

But please let me know what your opinions are and if you would like to work on it, that would be great. I don't have any money to give you but you can be like the forefathers of the linux operating system which I am using now for free and create something great that others can benefit from.

I am practically clueless to coding, as far as html, I have only gotten as far as changing the style of text (italic, bold etc..) that's about it. So this idea if approached by myself would take a long time.

Lastly, to summarize one more time, the purpose if it is still not clear.

I tried creating a website, I did not know how difficult and yet simple it was. That you could write one entirely in notepad. Further items and objects are not "coded as if in CAD programs" rather a different method "the HTML method" so with this program, I could draw my website exactly how I want to see it, where text is, logos, windows etc... and the program would scan my image, and generate an HTML code of the image but in the sense of a full website, not as an image refrence. From here, a new window is seen and you may begin to interact with the "base block" website and start changing things like color and position of things. You basically create something which can interpret an image of a colleciton of items and rather than interpreting it as a picture/collection, the individual components of the picture are isolated as singular objects which can then be modified.

Hi, I appreciate the effort you have put in writing this post. There is a similar functionality already available in various touch screen devices like iPad, Galaxy Note etc.

When you open the paint application in iPad, and you start drawing the rectangles / circles / lines, the interface automatically converts it into the actual objects. Similarly, the freehand texts you write on the screen are converted into actual text contents.

So, your concept can be an extension to such tools / application wherein the application understands various WEB objects and generates the code accordingly.

Interesting idea. As niralsoni above me mentioned, there is existing software that "interprets" drawn images, so your idea is quite feasible. I don't have much to offer, but I can venture some criticism.. Not to dampen your innovation.

Some of the problems that come to mind:

Like speech recognition, software that deals with interpreting 'more human' sources of data tends to be quite.. err.. fallible. Programs like these have made big leaps forward in recent years, but still have this reputation. All I'm saying by this is, that even with an ideal result to such a project I wouldn't expect the program to always work as intended. Converting a box model might not be so problematic, but things like margin vs padding, border vs outline, background vs new element, or many other things would be tricky. Not only to get correct initially, but also to allow a non-savvy user to fix up without a lesson or two in HTML/CSS first (which this idea is seemingly meant to be dodging in the first place).

From my point of view at least, a pretty page is the least of my worries when creating a website. Actually, I'd say you could learn enough HTML and CSS in a months' free-time — if you really wanted to — to whack up a cool page to your own specifications. Anything but the most simplistic web-pages these days requires a dynamic scripting language behind it, and one of the main problems with creating a page right off an image is just that; It would be a reflection of an image. The web is dominated now by smart pages with adaptable content, and I dare say most people would get closer to their goals with a Wordpress theme that already incorporates scripts.

The workings of HTML also depends a lot on it's environment. Even if the generator could produce desired code, the user would still need to understand the structure of their web-server enough to correctly reference their resources, and place their code. Images are separate files, and ideally so are styles. Linking to these in the HTML generally begs at least basic knowledge. I'd just like to point out that there would be numerous pitfalls involved with letting a coding-illiterate person jump into web-page design.

Occasionally I have made concepts of web-pages in Photoshop, when I'm trying to brainstorm a good idea. I forgot to mention probably the most obvious flaw with the image-to-webpage idea.. As you say "I was curious if people could literally design their web-page like an architect and a house", and "If you are good with a program like GIMP you could create some really artistic webpages". Truthfully, web-pages have never been limited by lack of artistic designers, as much as the functionality of the styling. Everything is boxes because that's all that HTML and CSS have done consistently. If you make a program like you describe, then the chances of someone drawing — or trying to draw — a creative web-page that isn't actually possible in HTML and CSS is very high indeed, and that is the sad truth.

Maybe I missed it in the above discussion, but the most complex portion of a web site is not the image painted on the screen, but what's going on behind the screen. As an obvious example, I will propose the attached scan be the first one pushed through your scanning engine...

The website does not even have to be crazy for the scan-a-web to be useful; this forum here uses the same forum design as many other forums such as Wattflyer;FPVLab;Computer Forums;...

Is it possible that this sort of mentality of "it already exists, why change it" applies to other aspects such as web designing? Everything is square based so why circles?

Not at all, HTML and CSS are evolving languages; Just another hurdle to creating such a program I'm afraid. More recent implementations of CSS include rounded properties, although the use of these newer effects is stifled by browser support. There are also more advanced methods of creating shapes in web design, such as SVG, but I don't know much about that.

I don't know how Apple creates their stuff, but I can bet they aren't using a web language.

I think the mentality "it already exists, why change it" has a strong following in the web development arena, but at the same time I wouldn't blame that for the abundance of themes based on rectangles. I've tried themes based on diagonals, but they just weren't practical in terms of what I had to work with, and I had to give up on them.

I am curious, I have thought about creating my own operating system for my android device.
I am paranoid that people are monitoring me (through dual cameras, microphone and general usage of the phone)

I don't like that. Korea manufactures this phone, how do we know that they don't use them as a monitoring device for US? Korea I mean samsung

Anyway that's not really something that I think about often but I wanted my own operating system. Still that idea of "it alreayd exists..." comes to mind

When I use my phone I think, how perfect it already is. Whoever originally invented Operating Systems knew what they were doing and knew how it should function.

It's like mathematics in a way, there is a direct method and then there is a "slow/dumb method" so why create a new OS when the one that is already in use is good?

I think to myself, perhaps it is because I haven't seen anything else besides what is currently out there.

I think about operating systeme themes with applications floating around and as soon as you place your fingers on the screen, the primary applications assigned to each finger show up and attach themselves to your fingers. I feel like I may have seen this in a movie somewhere... it sucks but it seems like every idea you ever have is something that has been influenced by something else.

So perhaps Genuises are people who basically "pull something out of their ***" and it is brilliant. Otherwise, common ideas are just ideas that were influenced by something you had already seen therefore it isn't really genuine

Maybe I missed it in the above discussion, but the most complex portion of a web site is not the image painted on the screen, but what's going on behind the screen. As an obvious example, I will propose the attached scan be the first one pushed through your scanning engine...

Dave

Oh God It's crazy, like time traveling, 2 years later I return lol

So... to have another go at this (I have an ***-load of projects going on)

I have more knowledge now, php,sql,javascript,html,css,c#,xml etc...

First, I would look at the photo's size, pixel count, get a rough measurement, the lines are curved so I would approximate eg. draw from one end to the other, use a right angle hypotenuse deal and get that line. Mayve that's not even necessary.
Then the words would be interpeted.
First I'd probably do a "top-down" processing method where the easier stuff was done first, so the button would be next before doing what the text says.
Button, measure, text, apply this button as a "submit" using php.
Then, the text is interpreted, google Fermat's theorem, probably open up wikipedia... my roommate is a math major, he just worked with the golden ratio / spiral that applies to sunflower seeds and flowers and such, he would probably understand / help in optimizing the solving part, not sure if the last thereom can actually be solved (I could look it up) but there are some things like I took CSE-191 Discrete something and they said all the matter in the universe, if that was equivalent to the processing power this thing to compute I think it was an exponential thing, would take far more time than the current time the universe has existed. Anyway....

So the function would be called, and then the go button would have the "start" part

This could be related to bitmapping not sure

Also a web access is required, whether it is locally created or placed on a server somewhere.